1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical devices and, in particular, to devices for treating a target site within the body, such as a vascular abnormality.
2) Description of the Related Art
A wide variety of intracardiac prosthetic devices are used in various medical procedures. For example, certain intravascular devices, such as catheters and guide wires, are generally used to deliver fluids or other medical devices to specific locations within the vascular system of a patient, such as a selective coronary artery. Other devices are used in treating specific conditions, such as devices used in removing vascular occlusions or for treating septal defects and the like. For instance, devices have been developed for treating abnormalities, such as an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), a Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA), a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), as well as conditions that result from previous medical procedures such as Para-Valvular Leaks (PVL) following surgical valve repair or replacement.
However, the ability to deliver these devices to particular areas of the vasculature or for particular patients may be limited by their bulkiness. Previous devices typically require a 6-10 French introducing catheter, which generally makes it difficult to treat children affected with congenital defects with these devices. With respect to a PDA, a smaller, lower profile device potentially allows treatment of pre-mature infants with a PDA. Moreover, some of these devices are used to occlude a patient's vessel or abnormality, such as to stop blood flow through an artery to a tumor or other lesion. Despite the general ability to occlude a vessel or abnormality, reducing the time needed to occlude the vessel or abnormality is desired so that the device may be accurately and effectively positioned and fixated within the vessel.
Furthermore, before delivering these devices, a diagnostic catheter is typically used to inject contrast and then to visualize, by use of angiography, the target site dimensions for proper device selection. Once a device has been selected, the diagnostic catheter is removed from the body and the medical device and delivery catheter are introduced through the vasculature. Thus, conventional medical devices are incapable of being delivered through a diagnostic catheter such that exchanging the diagnostic catheter is required in order to deliver the medical device to the target site.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a medical device that is deployable through a diagnostic catheter and that may be accurately placed within a target site. In addition, there exists a need for a collapsible medical device for occluding various target sites which provides rapid occlusion following delivery and placement thereof. Moreover, there is also a need for a medical device that may be effectively fixated within a target site.